Communication networks, such as a data network or a telecommunications network, often become extremely complex in size and number of components. Considering for example a telecommunications network that covers the entire United States, such a network would contain many nodes (e.g., switches) interconnected by numerous links (e.g., trunks or lines). To analyze, monitor, or otherwise work with such a network, the network can be mapped in different ways, depending on the type of network.
One type of network is a hierarchical network. Hierarchical networks have a parent-child relationship between nodes. A parent node in a hierarchical network connects to several other sublevel nodes, each called a child. Therefore, the hierarchical network can be mapped at a desired level, showing only the parent nodes that exist at that level. Furthermore, a submap can be created by selecting one or more parent nodes and all sublevel nodes connected to the parent nodes.
Another type of network is a flat network. The above-described mapping techniques can not accommodate flat networks because flat networks do not have the parent-child relation. In a flat network, all nodes are interconnected to one another without a parent-child relation and some nodes may have links directly to every other node in the flat network. Therefore, selecting one node from the flat network to create a submap is not practical because of the interconnection between the selected node and other nodes, which can result in reproducing the entire network in the submap. Reproduction of the entire network in the submap is impractical because a single node can not be isolated and monitored. Furthermore, system resources would not be used efficiently and in the case of large networks, the system resources would be exhausted.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method to generate a submap for nodes in flat networks without reproducing the entire flat network in the submap.